Of all the honors and accolades bibliophile and noted authority on the Underground Railroad Charles Blockson has received, being bequeathed recently with some of Harriet Tubman's personal items by her great-niece is one of the most significant experiences of his life. A longtime collector of books and rare items by and about African-Americans,…

After more than half a century, the music of Motown not only thrives, it transcends generations. The iconic sound of Motown has led a handful of scholars to write, teach, lecture and share the music, history and business of Motown on their campuses. In its golden age, from 1959 to 1972, the sound Berry Gordy pioneered at Motown Records in Detroit…

This article discusses the appointment of Dr. Drew Gilpin Faust as the first woman named president of Harvard University, which marks a diversity high point in the storied history of the nation's oldest university. At age 9, Faust famously wrote to U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower calling for an end to segregation. And in her current role as a…

Thomas Sayers Ellis, assistant professor of creative writing at New York's Sarah Lawrence College, is one of many scholars fighting for the soul of Black poetry, a struggle that takes place largely off-campus. Unless one is accepted into a top-level graduate poetry program, such as Boston University's program or the Iowa Writing Workshop, a poet's…

21st century Black children and adolescents have lost a connection with the social and cultural currents of the mid-20th century. The author, while she acknowledges the troubles that plagued the Black community in the past, laments what Black culture has become in the age of integration. She ties this concern to the similar decline of Black…